Just picked up Tcherepnin's "Narcisse et Echo" on Chandos, hoping for some
good old fashioned Ravelian ecstacy.  I also grabbed Ginastera's "Panambi"
and "Estancia" just because.  (I will explain the irony later.)

Well, I found the Tcherepnin to be pretty, but pretty light-weight--another
miss in Chandos' luxuriously played, recorded, and packaged, "Justly
Neglected Composers Series." (The few hits certainly make up for all the
misses though.) The music sounds like Delius, but without the eccentricity
that marks the latter composer's genius.  The orchestration is delicate and
colorful, but not rarefied enough to overcome the very static nature of the
the music.  (Something Takemitsu can *sometimes* get away with.) I listened
to "Narcisse" a couple of times hoping that the underlying architecture
would come into view, (yielding some sort of gratifying comprehension,) but
no luck.

How funny it was to discover that Ginastera's "Panambi" was everything I
was hoping for in the above.  Colorful and exotic, Ginastera wrote Panambi
when he was only 21.  This is not the music of Revueltas.  Some call Rev's
music undiluted, powerful, and elemental in nature.  Unfortunately for me,
Baba Loooooo!  comes mind.  (Too many years watching I Love Lucy.)
Elemental yes.  Elevated? Well, I don't think so.

An Argentine "Wooden Prince" is the best way to describe Panambi.
If you like early Bartok, the Stravinsky of the "Firebird," and esp.
Ravel's "Daphnis," you won't be disappointed.  Ginastera sings his own
song but masterfully employs the heady Post Romantic, Impressionistic
compositional/orchestrational techniques of a slightly earlier day.
(Written in 1937, sounds like 1911), Whether or not Ginastera's later music
could breathe on its own, without such a direct influence of these masters,
is another story; but I highly recommend this gem.  Excellent sound too.

Conifer Classics 75605-51336  LSO/Ben-Dor  (a woman conductor!) (from
Uruguay!!)

John--let's keep supporting those daring United Kindom CD companies--Smyth